Tag: arjun kharpal

Beleaguered Chinese tech behemoth Huawei kicked off 2019 with a charm offensive, in a bid to counter damaging headlines that have hit the company in the past few months. In what appeared to be part of a significant public-relations push, the company offered international media a tour last week of its smartphone production factory in Dongguan, an area just north of its headquarters in Shenzhen. And then it took a group of reporters, including from CNBC, to a new campus being built to look like va

Beleaguered Chinese tech behemoth Huawei kicked off 2019 with a charm offensive, in a bid to counter damaging headlines that have hit the company in the past few months.

The company has often been criticized for being too secretive, but has tried to to open its doors more since the start of the year. That comes after the arrest of its CFO on allegations the tech giant committed fraud linked to the skirting of U.S. sanctions, a report that American authorities are probing whether the firm stole trade secrets, and moves from multiple countries to block Huawei’s equipment from sensitive infrastructure projects.

In what appeared to be part of a significant public-relations push, the company offered international media a tour last week of its smartphone production factory in Dongguan, an area just north of its headquarters in Shenzhen. And then it took a group of reporters, including from CNBC, to a new campus being built to look like various cities in Europe.

The biggest sign of Huawei’s new public positioning came later that day, when the company hosted a round table with Ren Zhengfei, the telecommunication equipment maker’s reclusive founder. Ren very rarely speaks to the media, let alone international publications, and is not often seen in public. He spent more than two hours taking questions from outlets including CNBC, addressing some of the allegations thrown at his company.

Huawei would never allow China’s government to access customer data, even if Beijing requested it, the CEO and founder of the company repeatedly emphasized Tuesday, amid continued political pressure on the Chinese technology giant. Ren, speaking Mandarin and using a company-provided translator, told the group that Huawei has never handed data to Beijing. We will never harm any nation or any individual,” Ren told the journalists assembled at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China. “China’s mini

Huawei would never allow China’s government to access customer data, even if Beijing requested it, the CEO and founder of the company repeatedly emphasized Tuesday, amid continued political pressure on the Chinese technology giant.

In a rare sit down with international media, Ren Zhengfei addressed concerns raised by the U.S. government, which has warned that the company’s equipment could allow the Chinese government to have a backdoor into a nation’s telecommunications network.

Ren, speaking Mandarin and using a company-provided translator, told the group that Huawei has never handed data to Beijing.

“When it comes to cybersecurity and privacy protection we are committed to be sided with our customers. We will never harm any nation or any individual,” Ren told the journalists assembled at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

“China’s ministry of foreign affairs has officially clarified that no law in China requires any company to install mandatory back doors. Huawei and me personally have never received any request from any government to provide improper information,” Ren added.

Ren, a former soldier in the People’s Liberation Army and a current Communist Party member, has faced several years of questions about his relationship between those organizations and his company. Despite his history, Ren told the representatives of the international media that his longtime affiliation with China’s authoritarian party would not affect his ability to fight against that same government if it requested user data.

“The values of a business entity is customer first, is customer centricity. We are a business organization so we must follow business rules. And in that context I don’t see close connection between my personal political believe and our business actions we are going to take as a business entity. And I think I already made myself very clear right now, we will definitely say no to such a request,” Ren said, when asked by CNBC about whether his ties to China’s ruling party would stop him from fighting any kind of data request.

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei praised President Trump’s tax policies Tuesday while speaking in a rare public appearance before international media. Ren continued, saying that actions like “the detention of certain individuals” could have negative effects on U.S.-China relations. U.S. authorities allege that Meng and Huawei violated Iran sanctions and may have made illegal transactions with HSBC. Also,developed markets such as Australia and New Zealand have banned the use of Huawei products to build ne

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei praised President Trump’s tax policies Tuesday while speaking in a rare public appearance before international media. But he also hinted the U.S. might be scaring away potential investment through actions like the arrest of his daughter and Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou.

“For President Trump as a person, I still believe he is a great president in the sense that he was bold to slash taxes,

Ren said. “And I think that’s conducive for the development of industries in the United States.”

Ren continued, saying that actions like “the detention of certain individuals” could have negative effects on U.S.-China relations. Meng was arrested in Canada in December. U.S. authorities allege that Meng and Huawei violated Iran sanctions and may have made illegal transactions with HSBC. Authorities in the U.S. have until the end of January to file an extradition request.

“It’s also important to treat countries with potential investors nicely, so that those investments will come,” Ren said. “If countries or companies are getting frightened… by the detention of certain individuals, and then those potential individuals might be scared away, and that is definitely not in the interest of the United States.”

China is also detaining people, however. Since Meng’s arrest, 13 Canadian citizens have been detained by China, though at least eight have been released, according to Reuters.

Huawei has faced increased scrutiny in the U.S., which has advised consumers against buying Huawei-made phones over concerns they could be used to spy. Also,developed markets such as Australia and New Zealand have banned the use of Huawei products to build new faster 5G networks. Ren denied all allegations that Huawei spies for China and said he would refuse requests from the Chinese government if it asked for Huawei’s user data.

During the briefing, Ren said Huawei “might face challenges and difficulties in international markets,” and said that growth during the next year “would be less than 20 percent.” Another Chinese telecom company, ZTE, faced similar headwinds in 2018, but Ren assured the media that “what has happened to ZTE will not happen to Huawei.”

Chinese technology giant Huawei is building a brand new campus designed to look like different places in Europe. CNBC had a tour of the nine square kilometer site, which can house up to 25,000 employees.

Pony.ai, one of China’s most valuable driverless car start-ups, has launched an app that allows users to hail an autonomous taxi, making it one of the first companies to do so. The app, which was quietly launched in late December, allows a user to hail a self-driving taxi from a pre-set location in Nansha, which is part of Guangzhou in southern China. Currently, only employees and a few VIP users are using the app, which is a mini-program built within WeChat, China’s most popular messaging servi

Pony.ai, one of China’s most valuable driverless car start-ups, has launched an app that allows users to hail an autonomous taxi, making it one of the first companies to do so.

The app, which was quietly launched in late December, allows a user to hail a self-driving taxi from a pre-set location in Nansha, which is part of Guangzhou in southern China. The car can travel to specific areas that have been set by the company such as its offices or residential areas.

Currently, only employees and a few VIP users are using the app, which is a mini-program built within WeChat, China’s most popular messaging service. Rides are free for now.

Pony.ai, a $1 billion firm co-located in China and the U.S., makes software to power driverless cars. It does not make the vehicle itself. Instead it has partnered with automakers including China’s BYD and GAC.

The company’s technology relies on continuous testing and data gathering to improve the software, something that will be boosted by an autonomous taxi service carrying real passengers.

Apple’s latest iPhone models are facing huge discounts in China as retailers try to sell the struggling devices. That comes as the top-of-the-line Apple smartphones have posted poor China sales on what experts say are too-high prices for the world’s largest smartphone market and a lack of innovative features compared to local competitors like Huawei. Other third-party sellers on the site had the devices for even cheaper, offering flash sales to try to unload iPhones. Sunion, an Apple re-seller,

That comes as the top-of-the-line Apple smartphones have posted poor China sales on what experts say are too-high prices for the world’s largest smartphone market and a lack of innovative features compared to local competitors like Huawei. The technology giant itself acknowledged earlier this month that unexpectedly low sales in the Chinese market would likely lead to worse-than-anticipated first quarter revenues.

One of the most recent iPhone cost cuts in the country came from Suning, a large Chinese retailer, which changed the price of the 128GB version of the iPhone XR from 6,999 yuan ($1,036) to 5,799 yuan ($858) — a 1,200 yuan ($178) discount.

Other third-party sellers on the site had the devices for even cheaper, offering flash sales to try to unload iPhones. One seller had a 256GB version of the iPhone XS Max, Apple’s most premium device, for 9,699 yuan ($1,436), way below the U.S. firm’s official selling price of 10,999 yuan ($1,628) for that smartphone.

Still, that remains more expensive than in the U.S., where the same phone would sell for $1,249, according to the Apple website.

And that’s just on one site. Other retailers in China are also putting their iPhones on sale. Sunion, an Apple re-seller, was advertising 700 yuan off for both the 128GB and 256GB versions of the iPhone XR. E-commerce site Pinduoduo, which allows third-parties to sell products, also had hefty discounts across all of the latest iPhone models.

Apple’s issues in China are down to two major factors, experts and local consumers say: It got its pricing wrong, and it has failed to introduce features to excite consumers in a forward-thinking technology market. Now, analysts said, competitors have taken market share in the premium smartphone space.

A major cryptocurrency exchanges said Monday that it had suspended movement of widely known token ethereum classic after it detected a potential attack on the digital coin’s underlying technology. The exchange and wallet firm, Coinbase, said it had detected a so-called “chain reorganization” in which nearly $500,000 worth of ethereum classic was spent twice — an anomaly that is extremely rare for cryptocurrencies, but represents one of the biggest threats to the technology’s success. It could ha

A major cryptocurrency exchanges said Monday that it had suspended movement of widely known token ethereum classic after it detected a potential attack on the digital coin’s underlying technology.

The exchange and wallet firm, Coinbase, said it had detected a so-called “chain reorganization” in which nearly $500,000 worth of ethereum classic was spent twice — an anomaly that is extremely rare for cryptocurrencies, but represents one of the biggest threats to the technology’s success.

It could have been the result of what is known as a 51 percent attack, exposing a potential flaw in the cryptocurrency’s underlying technology known as the blockchain.

In essence, Coinbase is saying that a malicious party may have been able to wrest control of more than 50 percent of ethereum classic’s network, and therefore was able to dominate decisions about what did and didn’t belong on the digital coin’s blockchain — the digital ledger that depends on a widely distributed consensus of users to record the asset’s history.

Alibaba struck a partnership with the Belgian government on Wednesday to create a trade hub that aims to help companies in the country to sell products abroad. Belgium is the first European country to sign up to the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), an initiative first proposed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma in 2016. The plan is to help small-and-medium-sized enterprises to sell products abroad, something they have traditionally found complicated and expensive. As part of the initiative, Al

Alibaba struck a partnership with the Belgian government on Wednesday to create a trade hub that aims to help companies in the country to sell products abroad.

Belgium is the first European country to sign up to the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), an initiative first proposed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma in 2016. The plan is to help small-and-medium-sized enterprises to sell products abroad, something they have traditionally found complicated and expensive.

As part of the initiative, Alibaba is opening a warehouse under its logistics arm Cainiao in Liege, Belgium. This will help businesses in Europe transport goods to China.

Huawei’s revenues will in 2018 surpass $100 billion for the first time, a top boss at the Chinese tech giant said Thursday. “There is no problem that we can hit the $100 billion mark,” Xu said, in a translation that was verified by CNBC. Huawei generated 325.7 billion yuan in revenue for the first six months of 2018, or around $49 billion, according to the exchange rate at the end of that reporting period. For all of 2017, the Chinese firm reported revenues of $92.5 billion based on year-end exc

Huawei’s revenues will in 2018 surpass $100 billion for the first time, a top boss at the Chinese tech giant said Thursday.

Speaking to CNBC in Mandarin via a translator, Eric Xu, one of the rotating chairmen at Huawei said that business is growing “slightly better” than had been expected.

“There is no problem that we can hit the $100 billion mark,” Xu said, in a translation that was verified by CNBC.

Xu did not elaborate on what had been driving growth.

Huawei generated 325.7 billion yuan in revenue for the first six months of 2018, or around $49 billion, according to the exchange rate at the end of that reporting period. For all of 2017, the Chinese firm reported revenues of $92.5 billion based on year-end exchange rates.

The growth so far has been driven by strong performance in a variety of businesses, especially the consumer division which has continued to rise. Huawei is now the world’s second-largest smartphone maker by market share, ahead of Apple.

But Huawei, the world’s largest maker of networking equipment, has been barred from the U.S. since 2012. “For Huawei, as leader in 5G technology, we don’t have the opportunity to serve the U.S. consumer with 5G solutions and services, then the U.S. market is a market without full competition while still blocking leading players from participation. Xu emphasized that blocking Huawei from the anticipated 5G market will mean less competition — which could result in consumers paying higher phone bil

Chinese technology giant Huawei warned on Thursday that American ambitions to lead the world in the next generation of mobile internet may not be realized if Washington continues to block the company from participating in the U.S. market.

That widely heralded new technology, known as 5G, could allow consumers to download movies in seconds and it could support infrastructure such as smart cities that will require lots of data. The U.S. and China are both in a race to become leaders in the space.

But Huawei, the world’s largest maker of networking equipment, has been barred from the U.S. since 2012. Speaking in Mandarin, Eric Xu, one of the rotating chairmen at Huawei, told CNBC on Thursday that the United States’ move could hurt the country’s ambitions in the next tech frontier.

“For Huawei, as leader in 5G technology, we don’t have the opportunity to serve the U.S. consumer with 5G solutions and services, then the U.S. market is a market without full competition while still blocking leading players from participation. Now, I’m not sure whether they can really deliver their objective of becoming the world’s No. 1 in 5G,” he said, according to a translation that was verified by CNBC.

Xu emphasized that blocking Huawei from the anticipated 5G market will mean less competition — which could result in consumers paying higher phone bills and telecom companies having to spend more.

“Without the participation for 5G technology leaders, without full competition, telcos would have to spend more to buy 5G equipment for network rollout. Consumers will have to spend more to get 5G services that are not as good from a quality point of view as other markets with leading players,” Xu said.